The year is 1749. The place is 三好市 広島県 Miyoshi town in Hiroshima.
Heitaro was a samurai of the domain.
He and his friend Gonpachi tried a contest of courage, involving an encounter with various Yokai.
This was a popular summer game reminding people of the . Hyakki Yagyō 百鬼夜行 "The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" .

In May they went up to 比熊山 Higumayama and lit 100 candles. Now each one of them had to tell a Yokai ghost story and after each story, one candle was put out.
After the last story was told the last candle was blown out and the two waited in the darkness for any Yokai to make their appearance.
Anyway,
no Yokai appeared for some time that night, so they went back home. But come July, the monsters begun to appear to haunt them . . .
And this story is told in the famous

For one month, various Yokai appeared day and night, trying to frighten Heitaro, but he never lost his calm and slept well at night.
For example, a huge toad appeared in his cupboard in the evening, with a red rope around its body . . . so Heitaro grabbed the rope and slept . . .
The next morning, the toad showed its real appearance, just the usual big box for cloths in the cupboard.

Another evening, a woman with a long neck came out of the Tokonoma niche from his room
and tried to lick him all night.
But he just ignored her completely and slept well till morning.

Eventually the Yokai gave up, praised his fearlessness and - in a swoop - disappeared from his garden.

This story soon became a picture scroll for all to enjoy.稲生物怪録絵巻 Ino Mononoke Roku Emaki.

An illustration from “Hyakki Yagyo Emaki,” a narrative scroll painting depicting a parade of yokai (Provided by the city government of Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture)

MIYOSHI, Hiroshima Prefecture--
An enthusiast’s extensive collection of paraphernalia related to the "yokai" supernatural beings of Japanese folklore is to be housed in its own museum as part of efforts to attract more visitors here.
The city government decided to construct a purpose-built museum to showcase about 3,000 yokai items amassed by Koichi Yumoto forming the main attraction. The museum is scheduled to open in 2018.

“I want to hand down to posterity Japan’s original culture generated by Japanese people’s imagination,” Yumoto, 66, of Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, has said.
He started collecting yokai-related works of art about 30 years ago, and has spent more than 100 million yen ($882,450) on his hobby to date.

Miyoshi, located in a mountainous region, has been seeking ways to revitalize itself by taking advantage of the local “mononoke” evil spirits culture.

The area is famous as the setting for “Ino Mononoke Roku,” a story about a young man who battles with evil spirits from the Edo period (1603-1867).

Yumoto’s collection provided a perfect opportunity, and the city teamed up with the yokai enthusiast who had been looking for a facility to display and manage his collection.
Yumoto signed a deal with the city at the end of 2016 to hand over his collection for free on condition that the city would establish a museum specializing in yokai.
The total project cost is estimated at 1.2 billion yen.

“I think yokai are happy about finally having their own museum,” said Yumoto.

Miyoshi Mayor Kazutoshi Masuda expressed his gratitude, saying: “We greatly appreciate the donation of such precious materials. We would like to invigorate the city by utilizing the collection.” - reference source : Asahi Shinbun 2017 -

Miyoshi Fudoki-no-oka History and Folklore Museum
Displays on the history, folklore and archeology of the Chugoku mountain region.
If you have kids who are going to Japanese school or have a high level of Japanese language skills, there are quite a few fun worksheet activities and quizzes to try.
Fragments of the yokai hobgoblins which appear in the Edo-era Ino Mononoke Roku ghost story set in Miyoshi are also scattered around the museum – find them all and stamp your notebook with a special stamp. - source : ethiroshima.com/museums-attractions... -

When someone dies with a grudge or unfinished business in this world, he might become an Oni and carry on . . .
Some souls become yuurei 幽霊 Yurei ghosts.
In other social circumstances, it becomes necessary to turn into an Oni (devil's advocate) right away . . .

Not all Oni are bad, destructive, eating humans or causing much harm and trouble.
Some are quite nice, kind, helpful and benevolent.

鬼になる器なれない器 ― 企業で勝ち上がる・独立するための34章
To be able to become an Oni or not - 34 chapters to survive in business and become independent
里中李生 Satonaka Risho- - - - - Contents
第１部 勝ち上がりたいなら、鬼になれ
サディズム無き者は去れ/給料をむさぼる「サル」になっていないか/三くだり半を突きつける「客」たち/"癒し"という罠に、はまっていないか/バブル入社組よ、弱者の幻影にすがるな

soogenbi 宗源火 Sogenbi / ubagabi 姥ケ火 / 姥ヶ火
A 幽霊 ghost does not necessarily appear in the shape of a human being. Some become a bird, rat, insect or other animal,
and some become an Oni.
In the district of 京都西院 Saiin this is called Sogenbi fire or Ubagabi fire.
It is a kind of Onibi 鬼火 Demon Fire.

The ubagabi (姥ヶ火or 姥火,lit. "old woman's fire") is an atmospheric ghost light told about in legends in the Kawachi Province (now Osaka Prefecture) and Tamba Province (now northern Kyoto Prefecture). They are mentioned in old litreature, such as the Tenpō period book the Shokoku Rijin Dan (諸国里人談) and Ihara Saikaku's collection of miscellaneous tales the Saikaku Shokoku Banashi (西鶴諸国ばなし) as well as Edo period kaidan books such as the Kokon Hyaku Monogatari Hyōban (古今百物語評判'), the Kawachi Kagami Meishōki (河内鑑名所記), and Toiryama Sekien's collection of yōkai depictions, the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, among other mentions.
- According to the Shokoku Rijin Dan, on a rainy night, in Hiraoka, Kawachi (now Higashiōsaka, Osaka Prefecture), it would appear as a ball of fire with a length of one shaku (about 30 centimeters). It's said that in the past, an old woman stole oil from the Hiraoka Shrine and became a mysterious fire from a resulting curse.

Sōgenbi (叢原火 or 宗源火, lit. "religion source fire")
It was an onibi in Kyoto in Sekien Toriyama's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō. It was stated to be a monk who once stole from the Jizōdō in Mibu-dera who received Buddhist punishment and became an onibi, and the anguishing face of the priest would float inside the fire. The name also appeared in the "Shinotogibōko," a collection of ghost stories from the Edo period. - MORE in the wikipedia -

- - - - - 猪笹王 (イノザサオウ) King Inozasa-O became an Oni
Inozasa was a huge wild boar living at 伯母峰峠 Obamine Toge pass in Nara. One day it was shot by the hunter
射場兵庫 Iba Hyogo. Tte Wild boar's 亡霊 ghost soul went to Kishu (Wakayama), to 湯の峰の温泉 the hot spring Yunomine and shape-shifted into a wandering Samurai, to heal his wounds. When the owner of the lodging peeked into the room at night, he saw a huge wild boar spread all over the floor. Later the ghost soul became 一本足の鬼 an Ippondatara Oni with one leg. It went back to Obamine and begun to feed on travelers.Saint Tansei 丹誠上人 could finally appease the soul. But every year on the 20th day of the 12th lunar month,
the day when all appeased Oni become free for one day, it could come back to this world.
This day is called. hate no hatsuka 果ての二十日 the final day 20 of the year .

Seijuuroo セイジュウロウ Seijuro
In the hamlet of 池尻集落 Ikejiri lived a man called Seijuro. One evening he heared a voice at the door calling "Hello, Good evening!" and when he opened, he was kidnapped by 魔物 an ogre.
One year later he came back, but by then he had become an Oni.

He painted this scroll while he was living in 丹後 Tango, 京都府宮津市 Kyoto, Miyazu city from 1754 - 1757.
The original did not show any colors, but a replica (like the above copy) introduced some colors to it.

A replica had been found in 1928 in 北田紫水文庫, a library.
There are 8 scrolls, each showing a Yokai with an explanation, which Buson might have encountered during his extensive travels in Japan.
The Yokai paintings are rather humorous and not so much scary, maybe reflecting Buson's history of a 俳画 Haiga painter.

鎌倉若八幡銀杏の化物 Kamakura Waka-Hachiman Gingko Tree Monster
化け銀杏の精（ばけいちょうのせい）/ 化け銀杏の霊（ばけいちょうのれい）
Its face, arms and legs are yellow. It wears a black robe and hits a prayer gong.
In former times, the Gingko tree was seen as unlucky. If someone planted it in his home, disaster would follow soon.

- quote - Shirime 尻目 lit. "buttocks eye" - “butt eye”
is a strange yōkai with an eye in the place of his anus.
The story goes as follows:
Long ago, a samurai was walking at night down the road to Kyōto, when he heard someone calling out for him to wait. "Who's there?!" he asked nervously, only to turn around and find a man stripping off his clothes and pointing his bare buttocks at the flabbergasted traveler. A huge glittering eye then opened up where the strange man's anus should have been.

This creature was so liked by the haiku poet and artist Buson, he included it in many of his yōkai paintings. - source : wikipedia -

京、かたびらが辻ぬっぽり坊主のばけもの。 めはなもなく、一ツの眼、尻の穴に有りて、 光ることいなづまのごとし。

“In Kyoto, at the Katabira crossroads, there is a monster called nuppori-bōzu.
It has no eyes or nose, but a single eyeball, located in its butthole, which shines like lightning.”MatthewMeyer.net

Torakichi claimed he was abducted and trained by tengu. A Japanese writer, Hirata Atsutane, interrogated him about his experience and wrote a book that was published in 1822.

Tengu often abducted priests, but they would also kidnap children. Some were permanently damaged mentally by the experience. Others were delirious or unconscious for a few days before eventually recovering. Renowned folklorist Yanagita Kunio said the boys of the mountain village where he grew up, as late as the late nineteenth century, talked constantly of their fear of being stolen by tengu.

One of these boys came back much the better for it, though. Torakichi claimed he was abducted and trained by tengu. A Japanese writer, Hirata Atsutane, interrogated him about his experience and wrote a book that was published in 1822.

Hirata was a serious scholar who was deeply involved in theorizing about the properties of the other world. While some skepticism was beginning to take hold, this was a time when many people still took these legends seriously. As late as 1860, in advance of a visit by the shogun Iemochi, officials of the city of Nikko posted an official notice:

To the tengu and the other demons:
Whereas our shogun intends to visit the Nikko mausoleums next April: Now therefore, Tengu and other demons inhabiting these mountains must remove elsewhere until the shogun’s visit is concluded.

So when Hirata heard of this boy who was telling stories of living with tengu, he wasn't interested in it as folklore – he took him at his word. So much so he abducted Torakichi from another scholar who was also interested in the story.

To Torakichi, it probably didn't matter which scholar he lived with. He was a sickly child born into a poor family, and didn't have a lot of options in life. Hirata saw Torakichi as the source of a lifetime to confirm his theories, and Torakichi was fine with this arrangement.

Torakichi did an excellent job of making use of his storytelling skills to earn his keep. Hirata was interested in every mundane detail and Torakichi had them all – from how tengu made mochi to their recipe for hemorrhoid relief –
as well as the spiritual questions and the things we all want to know (what did it feel like to fly?).

Some of his stories can be explained away as dramatization of rather normal things. He told one exciting anecdote of a creature that flew down and latched onto his face – it wasn't very large, but fierce and had sharp claws. This sounds a lot like a Japanese flying squirrel. Another time, he said he was attacked by a baby dragon that tried to pull him underwater, but it sounds a lot like he'd encountered a large snake. Torakichi was a city kid so natural things may have been unfamiliar and easily misinterpreted and turned into amazing stories.

Other stories seem to be based on well-known folklore, like his tales of orangutan-like monkeys with human faces that are fond of sake – he said they made a particularly delicious liquor.

But in other cases he's just a great storyteller, skilled at making up details that would excite his audience.
Here's what he said about how it felt to fly:

"When one rises into the sky, one feels rather as though one is treading on soft cotton—it may be clouds for all I know. But as one is rushing along as though blown by the wind faster than an arrow, the only sensation one has is of a ringing sound in one’s ears. Some prefer flying high in the sky, others low, rather as some fish swim near the surface of the water, others down in the depths".

"Do you take off from a mountain peak, or the top of a tall tree?"
- - - - - "Not necessarily, You can take off from anywhere you like."
"Is it cold or hot up in the sky?"

"When you first leave the ground it gets gradually colder, but once you are past the cold pole it gets extremely hot. When you are just passing between the cold and hot regions you feel cold from your waist downwards as though you are standing in water, and burning hot above. When you get up still higher, entirely into the hot region, your hair begins to go into tight curls like those on a Buddha image. And when you get up really high you find very calm weather, with no rain or wind."

He was also good at telling Hirata what he wanted to hear, or making up great rationalizations when he didn’t. When Hirata says Torakichi’s description of a trip to the moon doesn't match what Hirata knows about the moon:

Torakichi laughed and said,
"Your theory is flawed because it’s based on information you found in a book. I don’t know about books; I speak from seeing it up close."

And here's a particularly hilarious example of Torakichi telling Hirata what he wants to hear ("my master" refers to the tengu):

Also, since I [Hirata] find it very annoying when my nose hairs grow way out of my nostrils, I keep tweezers close by me so I can readily pluck those hairs. Upon seeing this Torakichi said, "Long nose hair is a sign of long life and my master believes they should never ever be plucked. My master’s nose hair is extremely long. Five or six have grown out of both nostrils and are so long that they are indistinguishable from his moustache. The master takes great care of that nose hair."

When Tengu Talk:
Hirata Atsutane's Ethnography of the Other World
By Wilburn Hansen
..... There follow chapters explaining the relationship between the implied author and the outside narrator, the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe, - source : books.google.co.jp -

- quote - Hirata Atsutane 平田篤胤
(6 October 1776 – 2 November 1843) was a Japanese scholar, conventionally ranked as one of the four great men of kokugaku (nativist) studies, and one of the most significant theologians of the Shintō religion. His literary name was Ibukinoya.
..... Atsutane's influence on kokugaku has recently been thought to be overestimated. While he is called one of the "four great men of kokugaku", this is a phrase he invented himself. His work more often influenced religious groups than the government in the Empire of Japan. - - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

an 18th-century scholar and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore. He was the teacher of Utamaro and before taking up printmaking, a painter of the Kanō school.
Toriyama is most famous for his attempt to catalogue all species of yōkai in the Hyakki Yagyō series.- source : wikipedia

The Illustrated Night Parade of A Hundred Demons (画図百鬼夜行, published in 1776)

Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (画図百鬼夜行, "The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons") is the first book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous Gazu Hyakki Yagyō e-hon series, published 1776. These books are supernatural bestiaries, collections of ghosts, spirits, spooks and monsters, many of which Toriyama based on literature, folklore, other artwork. These works have had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan. (Also see: Hyakki Yagyō). The various creatures are described, below, using images to illustrate many of them.

The Illustrated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past (今昔画図続百鬼, published in 1779)

Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (今昔画図続百鬼, "The Illustrated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past") is the second book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous Gazu Hyakki Yagyō series, published ca. 1779. These books are supernatural bestiaries, collections of ghosts, spirits, spooks, and monsters, many of which Toriyama based on literature, folklore, other artwork. These works have had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan.
The three volumes were titled 雨, 晦, and 明.
- - - List of creatures - source : wikipedia -

Supplement to The Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past (今昔百鬼拾遺, published in 1780)

Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (今昔百鬼拾遺, "Supplement to The Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past") is the third book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō series, published ca. 1781. These books are supernatural bestiaries, collections of ghosts, spirits, spooks and monsters, many of which Toriyama based on literature, folklore, and other artwork. These works have had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan.
- - - List of creatures - source : wikipedia -

The Illustrated Bag of One Hundred Random Demons (画図百鬼徒然袋, published in 1784)

Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (画図百器徒然袋, "The Illustrated Bag of One Hundred Random Demons") is the fourth book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous Gazu Hyakki Yagyō series, published ca. 1781. These books are supernatural bestiaries, collections of ghosts, spirits, spooks and monsters, many of which Toriyama based on literature, folklore, other artwork. These works have had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan.
- - - List of creatures - source : wikipedia -

Japanese folklore abounds with bizarre creatures collectively referred to as the yokai ― the ancestors of the monsters populating Japanese film, literature, manga, and anime. Artist Toriyama Sekien (1712–88) was the first to compile illustrated encyclopedias detailing the appearances and habits of these creepy-crawlies from myth and folklore. Ever since their debut over two centuries ago, the encyclopedias have inspired generations of Japanese artists. Japandemonium Illustrated represents the very first time they have ever been available in English.

This historically groundbreaking compilation includes complete translations of all four of Sekien's yokai masterworks: the 1776 Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (The Illustrated Demon Horde's Night Parade), the 1779 Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (The Illustrated Demon Horde from Past and Present, Continued), the 1781 Konjaku Hyakki Shū (More of the Demon Horde from Past and Present), and the 1784 Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (A Horde of Haunted Housewares).
The collection is complemented by a detailed introduction and helpful annotations for modern-day readers. - source : www.amazon.com -

- quote -
Hyakki Yagyō, variation: Hyakki Yakō, (百鬼夜行, "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons") is a concept in Japanese folklore. It is a parade which is composed of a hundred kinds of yōkai.
Legend has it
that "every year the yokai Nurarihyon, will lead all of the yōkai through the streets of Japan during summer nights." Anyone who comes across the procession would perish or be spirited away by the yōkai, unless protected by handwritten scrolls by anti-yokai onmyoji spellcasters. It is said that only an onmyoji clan head is strong enough to pass Nurarihyon's Hyakki Yagyo unharmed.
According to the account in the Shūgaishō (拾芥抄) Shugaisho,
a medieval Japanese encyclopedia, the only way to be kept safe from the night parade if it were to come by your house is to stay inside on the specific nights associated with the Chinese zodiac or to chant the magic spell:
"KA-TA-SHI-HA-YA, E-KA-SE-NI-KU-RI-NI, TA-ME-RU-SA-KE, TE-E-HI, A-SHI-E-HI, WA-RE-SHI-KO-NI-KE-RI"
(カタシハヤ, エカセニクリニ, タメルサケ, テエヒ, アシエヒ, ワレシコニケリ).
-- In literature
The hyakki yagyō has appeared in several tales collected by Japanese folklorists.
-- Uji shui Monogatari (宇治拾遺物語), in which a monk encounters a group of a hundred youkai which pass by the Ryūsenji temple.
-- Konjaku Monogatari Shuu (今昔物語集), which tells that during the Jougan Era (859–877), the eldest son of minister Fujiwara was on his way to his lover's place when he saw 100 demons walking from the direction of the University of Tokyo Miya main street. Since his attire had the sonjoushi written on it, the demons who noticed this ran away.
-- Ookagami (大鏡, Okagami) The Great Mirror
-- Goudanshou (江談抄) Godanshu
-- Kohonsetsuwashuu (古本説話集)
-- Houbutsushuu (宝物集) Hobutsushu
The night parade was a popular theme in Japanese visual art.
One of the oldest and most famous examples is the 16th-century handscroll Hyakki Yagyō Zu (百鬼夜行図), erroneously attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu, located in the Shinju-an of Daitoku-ji, Kyoto.
For other picture scrolls, the Hyakki Yagyō Emaki (百鬼夜行絵巻), contains the details of each member in the parade from the Muromachi period.
Other notable works in this motif include those by Toriyama Sekien (Gazu Hyakki Yagyō) and Utagawa Yoshiiku. However, Toriyama's work presents yokai in separate, encyclopedic entries rather than assembled in a parade, while Utagawa's Kokkei Wanisshi-ki ("Comical Record of Japanese History") employs the theme of 100 demons to comment on contemporary Japanese military actions in China.- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

毛谷村六助 Keyamura no Rokusuke stripped to his waist and drying his back is addressed by a young kappa.
A bundle of rushes and a carrying-pole are behind them. source : kuniyoshiproject.com

- quote - Keyamura Rokusuke (毛谷村 六助) is one of the leading characters in the ningyō jōruri/kabuki play Hiko-san Gongen chikai no sukedachi (彦山権現誓劔) and some other plays. The farmer turned samurai is known for his filial piety and incredible strength, and is viewed as a mirror of samurai.
..... Keyamura is located in Tsukinoki, Yamakuni-machi, Nakatsu, Ōita Prefecture.
..... Kida Magobee (木田孫兵衛) ..... Until the end of the Edo period, the Kida family served to the Hosokawa clan, who replaced the Katō clan as the ruler of Kumamoto. - MORE in the wikipedia -

Physical description: Sarah E. Thompson in her Utagawa Kuniyoshi: The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō, #31 describes another print, different from the one in the Lyon Collection, relating to Toranosuke's superhuman abilities.
"Takagi Toranosuke appears in at least one other print by Kuniyoshi and one by Kuniyoshi's pupil Yoshitoshi, both in the MFA collection. Both have short texts describing him as a samurai originally from Hyūga Province who wandered through Japan and fought various monsters. It seems likely that he is a fictional character, possibly inspired by the historical figures Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi, who founded the Hontai Hōshin Ryū school of martial arts in the seventeenth century, and his successor as head of the school, Takagi Umanosuke Shigesada. Both Oriemon and Umanosuke appear in prints as well, with fantastic adventures added to their real-life biographies.

Toranosuke's reputation as a fighter of monsters suggests that perhaps he is about to fight the whale, as in Kuniyoshi's famous triptych of Miyamoto Musashi fighting a whale. Kuniyoshi's other print of Toranosuke shows him in an underwater struggle with a creature called a 'river tiger' (kawatora); and the text of Yoshitoshi's print, which shows the hero fighting a female demon, mentions a battle with an 'evil fish' (akugyō).
Although no literary source has been found, there may be a related story in which the supernatural water monster is replaced by a whale - less unusual, but far more impressive."

"Takagi Toranosuke, a native of Hyūga and an expert in the martial arts,
is seen struggling with a kappa or kawatarō (also known as a suiko (waterbaby)).
A kappa is a composite amphibious creature said to be a native of Kyushu. It has the shell of a tortoise, scaly legs, webbed feet and most mystifying of all, an ape-like head with a hollow depression in its crown that contains a strange fluid that provides the kappa with its strength. It tends to be harmless, but if one remembers to bow to the kappa it is forced to return the bow, thus losing its potent fluid and becoming powerless.
Even as late as the 19th century, it was still widely believed that kappa actually existed. Stuffed kappa were shown in freak shows and one such exhibit was shown at the National Museum of Ethnology (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde) in Leiden, the Netherlands, in the 1980s. The animal had been cleverly constructed and must have been quite convincing at the time."
Quoted from:
Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 by Robert Schaap,
p. 47, with an accompanying color reproduction.